Suresh Prabhu bats for robust, effective internal audit system in Railways

Prabhu suggested to set up audit teams in each zone to review status of internal control systems

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday stressed on the need to put in place effective internal control systems and audit capable of detecting non-compliance of laid-down procedures and system failures.

There is need for a robust and effective internal audit system in Railways due to greater delegations of power at the field level.

Reviewing the status of internal control systems and internal audit on Indian Railways, Prabhu suggested for setting up audit teams in each zone to undertake studies.

He also suggested that the audit teams should be capable of detecting anomalies in the system much before the same are pointed out by external agencies.

"The internal audit teams should focus on passenger interface areas like catering, ticketing, cleaning, onboard housekeeping, etc and procurement process," he said at the review meeting attended by senior railway officials.

Prabhu said the internal audit team should follow a system-based approach wherein the emphasis should be to detect systemic failure and should also suggest remedial and system improvement measures.

He further suggested that internal audit should result in prevention of revenue leakages and control over-expenditure by making processes and procedures more robust to help in realigning processes and policies on dynamic basis.